1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer for personal use to be set on, e.g., a desk.
2. Description of the Background Art
A printer of the type including a housing formed with a sheet inlet and a sheet outlet and a printer section arranged in the housing is conventional. In this type of printer, a sheet path provides communication between the sheet inlet and the sheet outlet via the printer section, so that the printer section can print an image on a recording medium being conveyed along the sheet path.
When the recording medium is implemented as a sheet, it is a common practice to locate a sheet feed tray, a print tray or similar member for positioning the sheet or the resulting print in the vicinity of a sheet inlet or a sheet outlet. Such a member can position a plurality of sheets in the vicinity of the sheet inlet or the sheet outlet, so that images can be sequentially printed on a plurality of sheets without interruption.
For example, in a printer including a sheet inlet and a sheet outlet both of which are mounted on one side of a housing, a sheet feed tray and a print tray both are mounted on the same side of the housing as the sheet inlet and sheet outlet. The problem with this configuration is that the sheet feed tray and print tray both protrude from the housing and therefore occupy an extra space in addition to a space occupied by the housing. This is more serious when the sheet feed tray and print tray are respectively mounted on the front and rear of the housing.
In light of the above, there has been proposed a printer in which a sheet feed tray and a print tray are respectively mounted on the front and rear of a housing, but one or both of them are foldable. In this case, the sheet feed tray and/or the print tray is folded when the printer is out of operation or unfolded when it is in operation. Although this kind of scheme saves space, it forces the operator to open the sheet feed tray and print tray one by one, resulting in troublesome work. Further, the sheet feed tray and print tray each need an exclusive extra space when unfolded.
The printer of the type having the sheet feed tray and print tray mounted at one side thereof needs the extra space only at one side. However, the sheet feed tray and print tray always protruding from the housing wastefully occupy the space when the printer is out of operation. Moreover, dust and other impurities are apt to enter the housing via the sheet inlet and sheet outlet, which are always open.
Technologies relating to the present invention are disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 5-77507, 8-73097 and 9-301602.